Original Message

Driverless cars are not going to happen in our lifetime. In California, a pedestrian crossing against a traffic light got struck by a car (with a human driver) that could not stop in time. Unfortunately, the person then fell or was knocked under the wheels of a self-driving taxi operated by a company called Cruise, which is owned by GM. The self-driving taxi did not immediately stop and dragged the pedestrian. Luckily it didn't kill her. And also luckily there were no passengers in the driverless taxi. 

California subsequently yanked Cruise's permit to operate in the state. Then the CEO of Cruise quit. Then the co-founder and Chief Design Officer quit. Self-driving taxis are great in theory, not so great when those pesky unpredictable humans are around. Computers cannot predict every goofy thing that humans will do, like cross against a red light and get hit by a car and then get bunted under the driverless car that doesn't immediately detect them. The question then is: In a crowded urban area, what 'other' scenarios would a self-driving car do poorly in? And can we predict them?